Tagging A Change Of DirectionTagging A Change Of Direction

As a co-founder of MIT's Auto-ID Center, Sanjay Sarma helped plant the seeds of today's growing RFID technology. Now, he may enjoy some of the fruits of that effort.

Sarma took a position last week on the board of directors of OATSystems Inc., a developer of radio-frequency identification software, his first commercial job since starting the Auto-ID Center more than four years ago. The center helped nurture standards and industry cooperation around RFID. To maintain impartiality, Sarma didn't serve on any outside boards during his stint there.

As the Auto-ID Center completes the transition of its work to EPCglobal Inc.--a joint venture between EAN International and the Uniform Code Council Inc.--Sarma follows in the footsteps of other MIT professors, who often work with large or startup companies.

"We worked to create the industry, and now it has graduated to the next level," Sarma says. "It will be interesting for me to look at RFID from the other side of our capitalistic economy."

Sarma believes RFID is poised for mass deployment, as evidenced by mandates from Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense that suppliers doing business with them must implement RFID technology by January 2005.

Joining OATSystems was an easy call for Sarma. "OATSystems worked on the early standards and software development, and now it's great to remain involved [in RFID] with one of the exciting young in companies in the industry," he says.

RFID technology lets manufactures, retailers, logistics providers, and others tag physical goods with an integrated-circuit-based radio transponder that can be used to identify and track goods without having to visually inspect or physically touch them.

A native of Delhi, India, Sarma has a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon and a doctorate from U.C. Berkeley. He continues to serve as a professor at MIT and complete research projects at the university's labs, although he'll no longer be involved in RFID research.

When Sarma, David Brock, and Kevin Ashton helped created the Auto-ID Center at MIT in 1999, they envisioned a four-year arc to bring the technology into widespread commercial adoption. Sarma sees RFID crossing that chasm now. "The future is always uncertain, and there is trepidation, but I think this is the right thing to do," he says. "RFID is a lubricant for the supply chain, and once we start lubricating, we'll see efficiency gains of various kinds and new applications crop up each and every day."

Deployment of RFID systems will help product manufacturers deal with their biggest supply-chain problems, he predicts. "The worst problem you can have in the supply chain is a stock-out," Sarma says. "The second worst problem is too much inventory. The third worst problem is counterfeit products. The fourth worst problem is quality in general. RFID can help eliminate all of them."

The Defense Department and companies such as Wal-Mart "make their decisions for a reason," Sarma says. "They've done the analysis and seen the benefits. It might be scaring some companies, but at some point you've got to take the plunge."